The sound was faint at first, but grew louder. In the distance, Kit heard the battle cries of the pirates and Lotta's warriors, who were helping the buccaneers.
Myra saw them coming and took aim at the leading warriors. She fired her TAR-21, scoring chest and head shots. Kit could see the warriors go down, but there were so many of them that it seemed as if the ground itself was spiting them out. In the sky, the Iron Vulture fired its main cannons at the fort; dirt was kicked up as the shells made contact with the ground.
Myra knew that if the cannon operators were allowed to keep firing on them, they would be overwhelmed. She raised her weapon at the Vulture's gun deck, adjusting her sights to full zoom, and locked onto a lone pirate. Slowly she pulled the trigger and fired. The pirate was loading the cannon when the bullet made contact with his head; it was a clean kill for Myra and she turned her sights back on the advancing enemy below the Iron Vulture.
Three pirates reached the fort's wall, but were stopped from climbing over by Baloo. Taking aim he fired his Buffalo rifle, nailing a pirate in the neck, showering the others in his blood.
"When you mess with my friends," Baloo shouted, "you get the bullet." He reloaded quickly and took aim at a pirate who was now too scared to move. Baloo didn't hesitate to put a bullet into the man's heart.
"Gotcha," Baloo said as he fired. The bullet hit its mark and killed the pirate quickly. Then another blast from the Iron Vulture was heard, as a shell came and blew a hole in the wall of the hut, knocking Kit to the floor.
Hotspur saw Kit go down and rushed to see if he was all right. "Kit," he cried, "are you hurt?" Kit looked at him and gave him the thumbs up.
Myra took aim at a native warrior who was climbing over the wall. She fired but missed, adjusted her sights for a second shot. "I hate when I don't hit my target." This time the bullet struck the warrior in the lower chest, killing him in a matter of seconds.
Even though the fort defenders had the home field advantage, the pirates and the native warriors were too many, and began to get over the wall.
"I'm going out to face them," Hotspur said drawing his Rapier. "If I don't make it, tell my family that I died a honorable death on the battlefield." With those words he left the hut and confronted the enemy outside.
One of Lotta's warriors tried to thrust his spear into Hotspur, but he shoved him aside. This gave Hotspur the chance to attack, and with great speed he thrust his Rapier into the warrior's stomach and he fell to the ground.
Lotta spotted Hotspur, and knew he would be a worthy opponent. She slowly made her way toward him, to watch how he handled his blade, how fast he was, and his strength. He quickly took out two more of her people and one pirate.
"I think you should try your hand against mine," Lotta said. Hotspur turned to see her standing no more then five feet away, and with a wave of her hand a warrior gave her a spear. This spear was not just for thrusting; it was also used for slashing.
Hotspur quickly tried a for a vertical head slash with his Rapier, but Lotta parried it with her spear, which left him open for attack. With a quick thrust she stabbed him in his left leg. He let a bitter cry of pain and clamped his hand over the wound.
"You have skill," Hotspur said respectfully, "for a woman, I mean." Lotta was not impressed with his compliment, so she whacked him over the head with her spear.
Up in the sky Jake and Chance started to bet money on who would win the fight.
Hotspur saw a chance for a horizontal slash, but Lotta ducked under his sword and stabbed him in the stomach. It wasn't a strike that would kill right away, but it would make him a easy target. With the last bit of strength he had, he lunged his Rapier at Lotta's face, but was only able to cause a small cut to her cheek.
Lotta touched her cheek, there was a small bit of blood, but she only smiled at his last attempt to fight back. "You cut my lovely face," she said. And with that, she did a three-sixty spin and delivered the final strike, slashing Hopspur across the neck, cutting his major arteries and he fell to the ground dead.
Lotta then took Hotspur's Rapier in her hand, and raised both her spear and the Rapier in the air, giving a cry of victory.
In the sky, Jake and Chance saw the whole thing. "I think that's ten bucks you owe me, Chance," Jake said. But Chance was not going to pay his friend just yet, because the pirates had their own fighter planes, and he knew that as long as the pirates were in the air they could strafe the ones down on the fort.
The Iron Vulture fired at the fort again, and Chance flew their F-14, called the Turbo-kat, closer to the airship so Jake could take out the cannons. As they drew closer, Mad Dog in his F-16 fired a missile at them.
"On the right, Chance!" Jake shouted. Chance banked to the right as the missile barely missed them. Mad Dog tried to fire on them with his plane's mini-cannons, but missed as the Turbo-kat pulled up, heading for the clouds. The Iron Vulture fired on them but they were too fast a target.
Mad Dog was then joined by Dumptruck, who was flying in his F/A-18. They both locked on to the Turbo-kat with heat seeking missiles and fired them. Chance saw this and cut his engines off, letting the heat seekers go right past them.
Jake switched on his weapons system and chose hellfire missiles. "Chance, we need to go after the F-16 first." Chance looked at him with a smile.
"You got it buddy," he said, giving him the thumbs up, and went after Mad Dog. Jake locked on to the F-16 and fired. The missile soared through the air and struck the underside of Mad Dog's jet.
"Not good," Mad Dog said as he quickly ejected, before his jet turned into fireball. Thinking fast, Jake shot down Dumptruck and two more jets.
Back down on the ground Karnage was furious; he had just watched four of his jets go down, and now the Turbo-kat was moving into attack position in order to take out the Iron Vulture's cannons.
Inside the fort, Feral was keeping the pirates from scaling the wall. As one tried to get over, he plunged his blade into the mans heart. He turned just in time to see a warrior swing his war club at him, but he parried it and delivered a fatal slash to the warrior's face. Baloo was now outside as well, defending the entrance to the hut. One pirate came too close to Baloo's Claymore, and had his head cut off in a single swing.
Rushing to the open window, Kit saw one of the Iron Vulture's cannons destroyed, but his attention was drawn to Baloo.
Just like in Kit's dream, Hacksaw was alive and trying to kill Baloo.
As Baloo and Hacksaw fought, Karnage challenged Feral to mortal combat. Kit watched as all four of them fought like the possessed. If his dream were to come true, then Karnage would triumph over Feral.
Feral gripped his sword tightly as he readied himself. Karnage slowly drew his cutlass and got into fighting position. Feral was the first to attack, swinging his sword at Karnage, but he jumped back and quickly brought his cutlass down on the captain's shoulder.
Feral let out a cry of pain, as Karnage tried to thrust his cutlass into the captain's heart, but was blocked by Feral's sword. The captain then kicked Karnage to the ground and tried for his head.
Karnage saw the blade coming toward him and rolled to the left, making a quick thrust at Feral. The blade gashed the captain's side. Feral fell to his knees in pain, as Karnage quickly got back to his feet, and began to slash the wounded captain.
Baloo swung his Claymore at Hacksaw, but missed. He swung again at Hacksaw, slashing his chest. The dingo charged Baloo in fit of rage, but Baloo dodged the pirate's attack, and slashed Hacksaw's back.
Hacksaw counterattacked by stabbing Baloo in the ribs with the tire iron.
Kit watched helplessly as his friends faced death. He saw Baloo's Buffalo rifle in the dirt, grabbed it, and took aim.
Kit switched his gaze from Karnage to Hacksaw. He had to chose one of the pirates, but the choice he made would mean death for one of his friends.
Up in the sky, Jake and Chance in the Turbo-kat were going in for another shot on the last cannon. Just then a missile from the Iron Vulture was fired at them. Chance barely had enough time to evade the missile as it exploded next to the Turbo-kat.
Jake looked at the Turbo-kat's wing and saw little damage. "Chance, that was a close one," he said readying his weapon system for the strike on the cannon. But then something caught his attention. Blood was coming from Chance's neck. "Chance!" Jake cried.
Chance turned his head to face Jake. "It was a honor to serve with you, Jake," he said coughing up some blood. Then he pulled the eject switch, launching Jake out of the Turbo-kat, as it collided with the last cannon. Then the cannon exploded into a burning inferno.
Jake watched his best friend die before his very eyes. As tears ran down his cheeks, he felt an incredible loss. But at least the others were safe from the Iron Vulture's cannons.
Kit finally made his choice. He took aim at Karnage, and fired. The bullet struck the pirate captain's sword, destroying it.
Karnage turned to see Kit holding the rifle, smoke still coming out of the barrel. He ordered a total retreat and every one ran off, even Hacksaw.
"Baloo!" cried Rebecca, as she rushed to his side, trying to stop the bleeding. Feral was also wounded, but his wounds were not life threatening. Dr. Sinian came rushing out of the hut. After a thorough examination, she had him moved inside the hut so she could attend to his wounds. When Jake arrived, he saw that everyone was outside, waiting to hear what Dr. Sinian had to say. Kit was taking it hard, because he had saved Feral's life, but not Baloo.
Jake told Kit that things like this happen for a reason, and it's not their choices that tell how peoples lives play out, and it is ultimately in God's hands. He told him the story of Joseph, of how God let such bad things happen to him, but it resulted in good.
"Life has a way of being unfair, but we know that in the end, something good comes out of it," Jake said, pulling Kit into a hug.